Side-pocket pac.



WITNESSES 1.1. cnowm.

SIDE POCKET PAC.

APPLICAHON mm JUNE I6. 1915.

Patented June 5, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

1. T. CROWLEY. SIDE POCKET PAC.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 16, 1915.

1,28,884. Patented June 5, 1917.

3 SHEETS-SHEET'Z- Y INVENTOR W W By ltomeys,

L T- CROWLEY.

sme POCKET PAC..

APPLICATION FILED JUNE '6; I915. {1,Q28, 884., Patented June 5, 1917.

I 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- JOHN T. CROWLEY OF BEACON FALLS, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- .MENTS, TO THE BEACON FALLS RUBBER SHOE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF SIDE-POCKET PAC.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 5, 1917.

- To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jorm TJCROWLEY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in Beacon Falls, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Side-Pocket Pacs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rubber footwear and has for its object to provide an article of footwear possessing many of the characmines.

, pattern rubber shoes.

teristics of a rubber boot, which may be put on and removed, and secured on the foot in a manner similar to that employed for shoes. In other words, 'to provide a rubber boot made as rubber boots are made, but open at the ankle and lacing up the side.

This article is peculiarly adapted for.

rough use, one of the uses for which it is intended being in the mines, for instance coal A miners shoe is on the market made of rubber and of Blucher type; that is, lacing up the front over a bellows tongue in the manner in which leather shoes of similar pattern are laced. Several serious objec-.

tions are found to the use of these Blucher One is the fact that the lacing is located at a place where there is considerable motion or tendency to relative motion between the side flaps and the part of the shoe lying over the instep and above the instep. No matter how much reinforcement is afiorded at this point the lacings will rapidly cut through, thus ren dering the shoe useless for the purpose for which it is intended. The miners who wear these shoes have to stand or walk in water many-hours daily, and it is necessary that the shoe be waterproof. The conditions in the mine are also such that the shoe must be highly wear-resisting. One enemy of the shoe is the loose pieces of coal and rock encountered by the miner in walking.- These catch upon any protrusions at the front or side 01 the shoe, particularly those presented by the lower corners or cars of the Blucher side flaps. It is no exaggeration to say that frequently a miner will put on a new shoe in the morning, and before noon it is rendered useless for his wear by the tearing of the side flaps from the body of, the shoe, which tearing is accompanied by rupturing the rubber and fabric in such manner that water finds ready access.

ers shoe, there is illustrated a shoe having a bellows tongue formed by-making folds in the leg lining of the shoe. My present improvement, however, forms a side pocket or bellows tongue outside the lining and between the lining and the leg cover.

The previous blucher is a shoe, and the construction is essentially shoe construction. The present invention is a boot, and the construction is essentially boot construction. It is a rubber boot, and is constructed or fabricated by rubber boot building.

Rubber boot building is a very different craft or calling from that of the boot maker of a half century ago, whose principal material was leather; or from that of the leather shoe manufacturer of the present.

day. The problem which I have solved is the way to build a shoe possessing the form and structure of a rubber boot. That is, a rubber boot capable of opening for the passage of the foot of the wearer through the ankle portion. The shaft of a rubber boot swells outwardly at the back just above the heel or counter to accommodate the heel of thewearer in putting on and removing the boot. My improved construction is formed in at this part. In one aspect my invention is a boot of concave formation at the back of the leg above the body of the counter, the in curve is present at the upstanding portions- 7 of the counter.

In rubber footwear which is subjected to hard usage, particularly in usage wherein the wearer encounters obstructions to his feet in walking, it is desirable that the front and a two-piece boot last, because of the difficulty of removing the last from the article when such last is made in one piece.

My problem in producing this boot was something more than shifting the opening in the Blucher shoes from the front to the side.

The Blucher shoe isa shoe and-not a boot in its ,foot construction or fabrication, and

even were itsopening shifted to the side, it

would still be a shoe. My improvement is based upon my invention of a mode of-opening a rubber boot at the side of the ankle.

In the drawings accompanying this ap-.

I plication, one practicable form of the invensuch drawings,

tion is shown by way of illustration. In

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the pac showingthat side which is provided ':'-with the opening. p v I Fig. 2 is an elevation of the other side of the pac. r i

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section showing, in

elevation, the inside of'the side pocket.

Fig. 4 is a cross-section taken at about the plane of the lines 4.4 in Figs. 2 and 3. In this view the plane ,of Fig. 3 is represented by the dotted lines 3-3.

Fig. 5 is a cross-section through the pac' at about the line 5-5 of Fig. 2, the form also being shown. N

Fig. 6 is a detail of the leg coverl and pocket in course of construction.

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional detail at the front of the shoe, and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional detall at the back of the shoe.

'In building up this boot, upward of thirty distinct pieces are employed. These are rubber in various mixtures,- according to the function of the piece in the boot, and rubber coated fabrics of variouskinds. Among the pieces entering into the boot, some are strain-resisting, some are for waterproofing, some for filling, and giving body, some for stiffening, and others are wear resisting.

The following isgiven as an illustrative example of building up an article of foot- I v wearaccording to the present improvement.

Most of the steps outlined and most of the pieces referred to are those of ordinary boot building. In building this or the ordinary commercial form of rubber boot, a suitable tree or form is employed upon which the boot is built and upon which it remains until vulcanized The entire boot is built up and finished on this form, and without removal therefrom is placed in the vulcanizing chamber and vulcanized. The 5 first step in the operation is serving to the workman the Various parts which enter into the boot. These are principally sheets of unvulcanized rubber or compositions of rub- I ber, or fabric having coatingson one or both sides of unvulcanized-rubber, called friction cloth or fabric, the surfaces of the rubber being sufficiently sticky, to hold the parts together when placed in their proper positions. The operator takes the form and places upon its sole the insole 1. He then the leg lining 2, and over the toe portion places around the leg portion of the last I the toe liningB. The is frictioned I on one side, it having upon theouter side'a coating of vulcanizable rubber. The toe lining at its juncture with the leg lining overlaps the latter, and owing to the adhesive outer surface thereof is held in position. The meeting edges of the leg lining at the back are overlaid with a piece of friction fabric 4 frictioned on both sides. (It might be stated at this point that the various pieces are pressed together by the fingers of the operator or by means of a hand tool having a stout roller at the end. with which the joints are firmly rolled together.) A piece df stout friction fabric is then placed upon the inner'sole. This is called a skive, and is indicated by the reference character 5. This skive is preferably laid in such position that the edges of the lining come outwardly thereof when placed in their proper position, as will later be described. A gum toe-strip 6 is then placed around the lower part of the'lining. The backstay 7, of heavy canvas, is then placed over the strip 4. This is preferably wider than the strip 4 but does not extend to the top of the boot as does such strip 4, but ends below the same. The

rag-heel 8 is then placed over the backstay at the lower portion. This piece of the structure is formed of fibrous material and ankle above the rag-heel 8, at 9*. The anklerubber, and is for the purpose of giving piece is ,preferably formed of relatively pure gum, and constitutes one of the principal waterproofing elements of the boot at the point where this is subjected to the greatest amount of strain and bending. It

.hasbeen found impossible to put such an ankle-piece inthe blucher or any other form of rubber shoe. It is one of the distinctive rubber/boot elements. There is then placed ove the upper side of the foot portion a d ck vamp lining 10. This vamp lining has an upward projection at 10*, over the projection 9 of the ankle-piece, but does not extend so far up. It also extends around the side of the foot below the ankle at 10". This is one of the principal strain-resisting elements of the foot portion of a boot. In

building an article of footwear according to my invention the leg cover carries the new structural elements into the boot. The leg cover, and parts which form the'pocket and receive the lacing eyelets are preferably made up in one piece, and by another workman who inserts the eyelets in the proper positions, and serves this piece, at the proper time, to the workman who is building the boot. This made-up piece is shown illustrated-in Fig. 6 of the drawings.

of rubber and double-frictioned fabric, and, in my improved boot is shown, comprising two portions, a large and a small, 11 and 12; the large leg cover 11 is continuous across the front portion of the leg and has a continuous portion which overlies the portion 9 of the ankle-piece The small leg cover 12 is joined at the back to the large leg-cover 11 by being lapped over it and covered at the lower regions by the counters presently to be described. At the present moment, however, we are considering this leg portion prior to its application to the form, and in such condition the two portions of the leg cover are united by the shield 13 madeof heavy frictioned duck, the edges of which extend to the edges of'the leg cover portions 11 and 12 and are rolled together for a short distance, an eyelet-stay 142 being interposed between them. The eyelets 15 are inserted in these united edges. After both sides of the shield 13 are thus secured in position, the parts are laid flat and the front and back pocket linings 16, and 17, laid inposition, margins 16, 17 of vulcanizable gum being placed around these pieces of lining; The meeting edges of the leg cover are fastened together in some suitable manner, as by passing a string or wire through two'or more of the eyelets. The leg cover thus built up is then placed in position and the gummedmargins adhere to the outer gummed surfaces of the leg lining and the ankle piece 9, and the inner gummed surfaces of the leg cover portions also adhere thereto and to the various parts which they overlie. The edge of the large leg cover portion is laid over the back edge of the small leg cover portion and pressed in position. This forms the joint or seam between these parts at the back. Apocket is thus formed between some of the boot elements, including the ankle piece and the leg cover. The leg cover outwardly of the pocket is formed into .fiaps connected by water-proof webs with the portions inwardly of such flaps. The vamp lining 18, of double frictioned fabric is then placed in position, this having an upwardly projecting portion 18 which overlies the portion 9 of the ankle-piece, and also covers the notch 11 in the large leg cover and extends upwardly over the lower part of the continuous front portion of such large leg cover.- The operator then turns his attentionto the sole and heel, first carefully turn- The leg cover is made up of two plies, a thicksheet ing in the edges of the lining, the gum toe strip and the various vamp portions which have been applied, and over these placing an out-filler 19, formed of fibrous material and gum. He then places at the heel of the boot in proper position, the counter 20, of double frictioned fabric, and outwardly of this the counter form 21, which is of the same shape and formed of sheet rubber,. but slightly larger, each of these pieces having a portion extending upwardly over the bend and designated respectively as 20, and 21. The vamp of sheet rubber 22 is then placed in position. This has an upstanding portion at the front, 22 larger and higher than any of the previous upstanding portions, excepting. the front 9 of. the ankle-piece, and has side flaps 22 Wh1ch overlie the side ends 20", and 21 ,'of

the counter and counter-form and are rolled gum foxing 23, is then applied over the lower part of the counter and across the joint formed between the vamp and the counter, and.a gum foxing 24:, is applied around the front of the boot and caused to make a suitable joint with the gum foxing forwardly of such joint between the counter and vamp.

This practically completes the upper portion of the shoe. There is then applied the sole form 25, the smooth 'sole 26, the roughened tap 27 and the molded heel 28, whereupon the article is ready for introduction into the vulcanizing chamber; A lacing 30 is shown for fastening the flaps together.

In the illustrated example of 'pac the flap forming'opening through the leg portion is provided for during the building operation, and the openings forwardly and rearwardly of this are produced by slitting the lining and fabric after vulcanization.

After vulcanization, the last is removed from the pac and the lining 2 and ankle piece 9 arecut downwardly, as at the lines 29, Fig. 3', to points at or below the ankle. These cuts release the flaps and the structure assumes the appearance of a bellows tongue located back of the juncture between the flaps. In one aspect these flaps are the equivalent of the result of slitting the leg cover downwardly; to a point below the ankle, and the slits at 29 are respectively 10- cateel'forwardly and rearwardly of such assunied leg cover slit.-

The foregoing is a. general presentation of the manner in which boots are made and in which the present article of foot wear is con structed, so far as the foot and ankle portions are concerned, such building or forming being analogous to the fabrication or construction of the commercial form of rubber boot; a

It is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative and that changes maybe made material and some of the layers of rubber I What I claim is 1-.

1. An article of rubber footwear comprising a leg portion and a foot portion formed 'of fabric and gums and embodying stay portions and water-proof portions extending across the ankle, instep, front foot por-' tions, and the lower part of the leg portion in a plurality of superposed layers, the outermost layers at the side of the leg portion being slitted from a point below the ankle upwardly to form flaps, means for adjustably connecting the flaps, the said leg portion'layer's inwardly of the above-mentioned outermost layers being slitted upwardly at the front and rear of the flap forming slit, said latter slits extending from points below the ankle, and webs uniting the respective edges ofthe portion between such slits to the adjacent flaps.

2. An article of rubber footwear comprising a leg portion and a foot portion formed maepsa of fabric and gums and embodying stay portions and water-proof portlons extending across the ankle, instep, front foot portions,

means for adjustably connecting the flaps,.

there also being openings through the said leg portion layers inwardly of the abovementioned outermost layers at the front and rear of the flap forming opening, said latter openings extending from points below the ankle, and webs uniting the respective edges of the portion between such openings to the adjacent flaps.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN T. CROWLEY.

Witnesses:

IRVING D. WALLACE, 'V. T. ANDERSON. 

